The cute and the fluffy

When serious official political statements are not enough to get people’s votes, politicians often turn attention-grabbing and emotion-triggering self-presentation. They give the public access their “normal, everyday” lives through personalisation use other tools of “new” politics create a favourable image themselves. can also show unexpected, backstage aspects lives, such as interactions with pets. The paper analyses four case studies from different countries (Belarus, Estonia, Slovakia Spain) in which politicians’ references pets became prominent topic internet communication provoked numerous humorous reactions form memes. By looking at various degrees strategies, we that “old” should be regarded poles continuum rather than binary opposition. We discuss content, stance memes posted reaction appearance news. Our research indicates function provoke discussion and, result, polyvocal commentary on events; politicians, however, must take risks accompanying unconventional, revealing hope “there's no thing bad publicity”.